Thanks to Obama, Puerto Rico might never recover from Irma

The island was devastated by Irma. But it was ruined by the former president's austerity plan first.

The aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Puerto Rico.
(Image credit: RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/Getty Images)

In June 2016, Congress and President Obama passed a bill supposedly to address the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, by imposing external dictatorship on the island. Called the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (or PROMESA), it placed an unelected seven-member board in total control of all important policy.

The supposed justification was to give the island some way to get through bankruptcy. In reality it has set the island up for a decade of mass unemployment and crisis — without remotely fixing the debt problem. It's no accident the locals call the board "La Junta."

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.